Likewise, if it is said, “His speech is eternal in every particular, consisting of eternal letters and sounds inseparable from His essence, with regard to which He has neither power nor will,” this—besides its evident contradiction and rational incoherence—entails no perfection, since He does not speak by His will or power, nor whenever He wills.

As for those who say, “His speech is nothing but what He creates in something other than Himself,” this amounts to a complete denial of His speech. Its true implication is that He does not speak, as the early Jahmiyyah said, and it constitutes a negation of His attributes. By affirming speech in its recognized sense while denying its necessary implications, they fall into such contradiction and incoherence that their position is manifestly among the most unsound views anyone has held. They affirm that He commands and forbids, informs and gives glad tidings, warns and calls, without any of these subsisting in Him. Likewise, they say that He wills, loves, hates, and becomes angry, without any of these subsisting in Him. The extent to which this contradicts clear reason and authentic revelation has been discussed elsewhere.

As for those who maintain that this world is eternal, they are further removed from reason and revelation than all the other groups. Thus, they deny both speech subsisting in His essence and speech that He creates in something other than Himself. According to them, His speech is nothing but the intellectual concepts and imagined representations that arise in souls. This is what His speaking to Moses, peace be upon him, means according to them. Speaking is thus reduced to nothing more than the speaker’s knowledge.

Then, if they also say, “He does not know particulars,” there is neither knowledge nor imparting of knowledge. This is the utmost denial of His attributes and attribution of deficiency to Him. They have no proof whatsoever